‘Sounds like a great life,’ he said non-committally as he stood up, waiting for her to follow suit. He was definitely going to dig deeper now. He lowered his gaze so that she couldn’t see just how curious he was in the woman who now seemed so much more fleshed out after only a few remarks, a few revelations that most women would never have considered keeping to themselves.
‘Maybe.’
‘At any rate, keep me in the loop and I’ll be at hand to help if you need anything at all.’ He smiled lazily at her as she faffed around sticking her bag over her shoulder and adjusting it, her silky chestnut hair swinging across her delicate face. ‘And can I say something now that we’ve been a little more open with one another?’
‘What?’
She looked at him warily and he could tell that she had already retreated back behind the facade he was accustomed to.
But they were in new terrain now and just as he felt when he made a new deal, he was filled with the excitement of a challenge. The challenge of getting to know his PA better. Why not? It could only make their harmonious working relationship even better because it would be a more rounded relationship.
‘You think I play the field and leave a string of broken hearts behind me,’ he murmured, stepping towards her and fleetingly wondering what it would feel like to sift his fingers through that silky hair.
‘I never said…’
‘Well, I think you should live a little. From the sounds of it, your parents have lived quite the adventure…so how is it that you haven’t? Or maybe you have and I’ve just never seen that side of you…’ He tilted his head to one side and wasn’t surprised when there was no answer forthcoming.
Was even less surprised at the realisation that seeing those other sides to her was something he really rather wanted to do…
Chapter Two
ERIN HAD NOidea what to expect when she pushed open the door to her large, airy office on the Monday morning at eight sharp, half an hour before most of the workforce began making an appearance but usually a couple hours after her workaholic boss had been at his desk.
Her office was linked to Raffaele’s via a bank of sleek walnut sliding doors with panes of smoked glass. If he happened to be in a meeting and needing privacy, the doors would be shut but mostly when he was in, they remained open so that she could, with a glance, see whether he was busy or not.
If her office was large, his was five times the size, large enough to incorporate a separate seating area and a scaled-down boardroom. Many an evening had been spent there working to wrap up a deal.
Right now, as she divested herself of her cardigan, she was relieved to see that the doors were shut.
It gave her more time to continue going down rabbit holes berating herself for confiding in him, when she’d spent so long avoiding that particular trap.
Amid all her heated thoughts as she’d tossed and turned in bed the evening before, the one that jumped out at her was the one she was least willing to confront.
Feelings for her boss, which she had only ever entertained now and again before stuffing them away and pretending that they didn’t exist, could no longer be ignored because they went a long way to explaining why she was so rigid about maintaining her privacy with him.
Yes, she disapproved of his antics when it came to the opposite sex. She scorned the way he picked women up, enjoyed them for a while and then discarded them before moving on to the next one. And of course she knew that however attractive the man was for her on a personal level, he could never prove a serious temptation because she could never emotionally engage with a commitment-phobe.
She wanted that love her parents shared. She wanted the guy who would lie down on the railway tracks for her. She might be realistic when it came to her parents’ life choices, living on the road and kidding themselves that tomorrows were never going to get in the way of their enjoyment of the present, but on the emotional front…? They had set a template for her to follow and it was firmly embedded in her.
She’d had one stumble, a stumble that was in the past, a stumble, she liked to think, that had been a valuable learning curve. A broken heart had stiffened her resolve never to fall for the wrong guy again, to look carefully at the man she would one day trust with her heart.
Raffaele, with his casual disregard for permanence, represented everything she found unappealing.
So that being the case, why should she have such strong opinions on what he did or didn’t do? On any of the choices her boss made? Shouldn’t she be indifferent to whatever chaos ensued from his unregulated private life? So what if he asked her to buy presents for the women he always ended up walking away from? It was hardly a back-breaking chore. In fact, it often allowed her an afternoon off, scouting through stupidly expensive stores she would never otherwise have entered, and that was sometimes very entertaining. So why the ruffled feathers?
And why should it matter what her boss knew about her background? She was aware that it was an unorthodox one but she wasn’t ashamed of her parents. Yet the thought of him teasing out the details of her personal life made her feel vulnerable, made her feel as though she was advertising herself as a woman rather than as an automaton created solely to play the role of Personal Assistant.
Her rebellious eyes were fond of straying in his direction and only she knew her darkest fantasies, so deeply buried that they were only allowed out at night, when her mind was allowed to wander.
They were forbidden and delicious but they werecontained.
Was there a disturbing jealousy swirling around inside her at the thought of him and the catwalk models he was so fond of?
She eyed the closed door, took a deep breath and then briskly walked towards it, gave a perfunctory knock and slid it open.
Raffaele was sitting behind his desk, which was as big as a single bed. He was sprawled in the leather swivel chair, his long legs extended, his eyes closed and his hands folded behind his head.
The minute Erin walked in, he opened one eye, then both, then sat up, pulling the chair towards the desk and looking at her with his head to the side.
